All Lakers Expert Predictions For Thursday's Battle With Golden State

In just a few hours at Crypto.com Arena, your Los Angeles Lakers are set to do battle against a Golden State Warriors team missing All-Star point guard and leading scorer Stephen Curry, 2022 All-Star small forward Andrew Wiggins, integral bench cog Gary Payton II, and the ghost of Andre Iguodala.

Let's take a look at what we're expecting to go down tonight.

Which Laker will be the team's fourth-highest scorer?

Beyond LeBron James, Anthony Davis and D'Angelo Russell, I think Malik Beasley is going to go off tonight, with two of the Warriors' three perimeter defenders sidelined. If Jordan Poole, a terrible defender, is lined up against Beasley, look for LA's new starting shooting guard to cook.

Will LA beat tonight's spread?

Absolutely, yes. Los Angeles will (and must) win, and it will beat the anticipated six-point spread projected by oddsmakers in Vegas while doing it. The big risk is that LA will start the game off slowly, confident that it has the horses to win. Due to its lackluster 27-32 start to the season, the team unfortunately needs to treat all of these next 23 contests like they're basically the postseason, and not let up for an instant.

Which new Laker will contribute in a pleasantly unexpected way?

Well, this should be expected really given his profile as a player, but I think Mo Bamba is only scratching the surface of what he can do. He's going to continue carving out minutes off the bench behind Davis, and can play next to virtually anyone thanks to his defense around the rim and his ability to nail triples at an awesome rate (the seven-footer is nailing 38.1% of his 2.8 treys a night).

I think specifically we'll get a chance to see what he can do while altering shots around the rack, and could be treated to a block party against an undersized Warriors squad. He's averaging a block a game for the year, though he recorded three rejections in his first game for LA last week.

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